In-field behavior recording device for golf putting

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates generally to the field of behavior sensing and recording device. More specifically, the present invention is to measure and record full motion related signals on a part of putter. 
     A miniaturized data logging device for golf putters that records outputs from motion sensors during whole game is described. Utilizing accelerometers, the device obtains relative motion invoked at a putter head without affecting player&#39;s performance. The device also records such information for multiple incidents or for an indefinite period of time. The device will be attached on the surface of a putter head at which motion behavior analysis takes place. The present invention uses high density memory chip and USB for data transfer. The flash multi media storage card is also used for transferring the recorded data to personal computing devices such as personal computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), or a plurality of mobile devices. Data transfer is facilitated by a data uploading utility, which automatically detects inserting media and assists to transfer the record data into a file folder in the personal computing devices. 
     The present invention can be used for either training purpose or recording in situ behavior of player during actual games or events. Sufficient data recorded and analyzed during training can be used as reference performance data to compare the actual behavior of the player during the events. When the present invention is combined other recording devices for physiological data such as heart rate as well as user-determined action result, the player can recognize what happened during the events through post-analysis of the recorded behavior which can be helpful to modify strategy or improve training method for the player.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of behavior sensing and recording device. More specifically, the present invention is to measure and record full motion related signals on a part of putter. The preferred embodiment is comprised of one module of motion sensors, long term recording storage device for measured data, and battery. The recorded data is transferred through the storage device to personal computing devices or uploaded through internet for data analysis. The present invention also includes data analysis of each action of sensor attached to a golf putter as well as behavior changes during a whole game or event so that performance of players during the game or event can be analyzed to improve skills, strategy, and game management of the players.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Different types of highly sophisticated putting aids for golfer have been mostly focused on capturing action of players or golf putter during training session. Key movements of golf putter such as accurate alignment of head surface of putter to intended direction, square hit, and speed control must be maintained during putting for optimal movements of a golf ball. The three-dimensional (3D) positions of putter head could be altered by poses of other body parts such as head, arms, legs, and spine. Movement of putter head is also affected by unnecessary tensions in golfer's body or muscle caused by various environmental and mental factors. Any improper position or movement will result in the improper direction and movements of golf balls. Thus, accurate measurements of 3D spatial coordinates, angles, and speed of a putter head can provide crucial information of golf putting. When a golfer knows how the putter head moves during putting, it is possible to identify the causes of missing putts, which either problems in putting action or in misreading of lie.

Meanwhile, in-field behavior of a player during a full course of game can be very different from the behavior in a training session due to various environmental differences, physical and mental status of the player. Consistency of the in-field behavior of a player is crucial to achieve superior result of game, and it is important to monitor and record the in-field behavior of a player during a full course of game so as to improve the player's performance for future games.

The in-field monitoring and recording of player's behavior have limitations in weight and size of this kind of motion sensing device. The weight and size should be sufficiently small so that the device does not raise additional fatigue nor hinder any action of players. Most previous motion sensing devices are rather bulky, and thus are not adequate to attach them to a part of putter to carry during a whole game. In addition to the limitations in weight and size, a large capacity of storage media is required to record motion data measured during a whole game or event, which will generate a large amount of such data.

Several devices can monitor golfer's swing. Evaluation of golf swing requires specialized golf club that contains sensors, processing units, and battery. Although the devices may accurately measure motion of a golf club, it is not practical to carry the devices and store large amount of data generated by sensors during actual golf games. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,219,033 describes a single/multiple axes six degrees of freedom inertial motion capture system that consists of a miniaturized electronic data acquisition system. Motion sensors can be embedded onto moving device not to affect the static/dynamic motion characteristics of the device. However, this device does not have large capacity storage for the measured data during a full course of golf games. U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,850 discloses a golf swing evaluation system consisting of a golf club with a sensor and an associated display. The force and location of the impact of the club head against a golf ball will be showed on the associated display. U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,769 discloses a swing analysis system utilizing an instrumented golf club. The club includes several sensors, an internal power supply, an angular rate sensor and an internal ring buffer memory for capturing data relating to a golf swing. This invention can be used as an one-by-one assistant for a golfer's swing, or as a tool for designing an appropriate golf club for a specific type of golfer. U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2005/0261073 discloses techniques for measuring and modeling club-like sports instrument inertial motion sensing signals. The invention describes method and system generating corrected output of a motion sensing circuit. U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0025229 describes an orientation and position tracking system and method in three-dimensional space and over a period of time. Multiple inertial and other sensors for determining motion parameters to measure orientation and position of a moveable object were designed for the tracking system. However, these devices require special modification of a golf club as well as not practical to use in actual golf game.

None of above inventions satisfies all requirements of behavioral recording of movement of putter head during a full course of game. Therefore, a new device and method, capable of sensing and recording speed, 3D spatial coordinates and angles of a putter head during an actual game, need to be developed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In this invention, a miniaturized data logging device for golf putters that records outputs from motion sensors during whole game is described.

Utilizing accelerometers, the device obtains relative motion invoked at a putter head without affecting player's performance. In addition to obtaining the sensors' outputs, the device records such information for multiple incidents or for an indefinite period of time. The device will be attached on the surface of a putter head at which motion behavior analysis takes place.

In a preferred embodiment, the present invention consists of a main unit that is devised to control the whole device and to record sensing data, and the unit includes micro control module, motion sensor module, detachable mass storage device, battery, display, control buttons.

The present invention includes an apparatus of determining the change in spatial orientation from two tri-axial accelerometers mounted on a putter head. Three spatial orientations (rho, theta, phi) and three linear translations (x, y, z) are determined by the pair of accelerometers.

The main unit records measured data from the motion sensor module into a flash multi media storage device, and provides an input method for user-determined action result.

The present invention uses high density memory chip and USB for data transfer. Capacity of the storage card is sufficient enough to record determined motion information during a whole game or event that lasts approximately 5 hours. The flash multi media storage card is also used for transferring the recorded data to personal computing devices such as personal computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), or a plurality of mobile devices. Data transfer is facilitated by a data uploading utility, which automatically detects inserting media and assists to transfer the record data into a file folder in the personal computing devices.

Data analysis for the uploaded data is conducted by either a stand-alone or a web-based data analysis utility. The stand-alone data analysis can be performed in various types of computer while the web-based data analysis utility can be used for various types of mobile computing devices in addition to the plurality of computers. The result of data analysis is essentially the same, but the stand-alone utility requires updating patch file for improved analysis function. The web-based data analysis does not require such updating because the data analysis is performed in remote computing devices maintained by data analysis professionals.

A preferred application of the present is to measure movements of putter head during actual golf games. The present invention can be used for either training purpose or recording in situ behavior of player during actual games or events. Sufficient data recorded and analyzed during training can be used as reference performance data to compare the actual behavior of the player during the events. When the present invention is combined other recording devices for physiological data such as heart rate as well as user-determined action result, the player can recognize what happened during the events through post-analysis of the recorded behavior which can be helpful to modify strategy or improve training method for the player.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exemplary embodiment of the in-situ behavior recording device of the present invention attached on a putter head. The player can carry the device during a whole game period.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a main unit of the behavior logging device showing sensor module, control processor module, battery, and storage device connector.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of motion sensor configuration for determining the change in spatial orientation.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart representation of real-time data logging operation of the present invention. The operation records multiple complete events for a finite time period up to the maximum storage capacity of the media.

FIG. 5 is a representation showing data transfer from the media storage device in the main unit in FIG. 2 to personal computing device (personal computer, personal data assistant, etc.) to server system for data analysis through internet.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart representation of data transfer in FIG. 5 for behavior analysis either by stand-alone or by server side analyzer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The basic embodiment of the invention on a putter head is shown in FIG. 1 and generally designated 100. The motion behavior recoding device 100 is principally comprised of a main unit 110 that has its own motion sensor module 120, high density memory chip or a flash drive card as media storage device 130. The main unit 110 is mounted on the surface of a putter head 190 in order to sense and collect critical motion related data from it. Since the present invention focuses on carrying the invented device during the whole game period, the storage device of high density memory chip or a flash drive card 130 stores the entire motion data measured from motion sensor modules 120 mounted on a surface of 190.

The block diagram of FIG. 2 represents the main unit 110 of the motion behavior recording device 100. It comprises a sensor module 210, a storage device connector 220, a control processor module 230, and a battery 240. The sensor module 210 consists of two tri-axis accelerometers and measures acceleration rates for each axis. The measured acceleration rates are collected by the control processor module 230 through a set of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and transferred to the storage device of high density memory chip 130 through the storage device connector 220. The two sets of tri-axis acceleration rates are later used to estimate location information of the body under the measurement. Rotation information is also estimated from the sets of acceleration rates. The battery 240 provides power to the main unit 110.

The embodiment for sensors placement in the sensor modules 210 is diagrammed in FIG. 3. The sensor module consists of two 3-axis accelerometers 310 and 320.

A flow chart representation 400 of real-time data logging operation of the present invention is depicted in FIG. 4. The operation records multiple complete events for a finite time period up to the maximum storage capacity of the flash multi media storage device 130. When the device of the present invention is in operational mode, the data logging operation starts from the step 410, the data collection from the sensor module 210 in the main unit 110. Next, in 430 the control processor 230 reads the sensor data from the sensor module 210 in the main unit 110. Then, the processor stores the data in a circular buffer implemented in the embedded memory in the processor in unit 110. These data collection operations 410 and 420 continue until the step 430 detects a completion of a certain event. Events are defined as a pattern of the collected motion data, and the pattern is recorded a prior and stored in the embedded memory in the process for a specified movement of golf swing motion. If such a completion of event is detected in step 430, the processor stops collecting data and instead starts recording them in step 440 into the flash multi media storage device 130. The recording sequence resumes unless the end of recording command is detected in step 460. When the end of recording command is issued, the processor secures the stored data in the flash multi media storage device 130 and turns off the device 470 so as to make it safe to detach 480 the storage device 130.

FIG. 5 is a representation showing data transfer from the flash multi media storage device 130 in unit 110 in FIG. 2 to a personal computing device 530 (personal computer, personal data assistant, etc.) and then, if required, to server system 540 for data analysis through internet. First, the storage device 130 is directly connected to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector that is a part of a personal computing device, or inserted into a media memory card reader 510 that is connected to a personal computing device by a USB connector 520. The personal computing device 530 can perform a data analysis for identifying motion behavior of a golf player who wears the device 110 of the present invention, and can display results on a display screen 532. Otherwise, the personal computing device 530 transfers the data to a server system 540 for the analysis. The analysis results on the server system 540 transfers back to the personal computing device 530 for displaying on the screen 532.

FIG. 6 shows a flow chart representation for the said data analysis and display scheme. The data analysis consists of a motion reconstruction from the recorded sensor data and an analysis of the reconstructed motion 630 and 660. The analysis results generated on the server system are displayed using a personal computing device 640 or a web browser 680. 

1. A system for in-field behavior recording device for measuring and storing relative 3D coordinates of a putter head during actual golf games, comprising: a main unit configured to measure said 3D coordinates of a putter head, to store said coordinates data to a storage device, and to handle interface with a user;
 2. The system of claim 1, said main unit comprising a control processor module, a sensor module, a battery, a storage device connector, and an interface module.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein said sensor module comprising two accelerometers.
 4. The system of claim 2, wherein said sensor module is configured to measure said 3D coordinates data of a putter head.
 5. The system of claim 2, wherein said storage device connector is configured to attach a mass storage device. The storage device is for recording and transferring said 3D coordinates data from the present invention to plurality of personal computing devices.
 6. The system of claim 2, wherein said interface module is configured to communicate with a user by means of buttons and a display means.
 7. The system of claim 2, wherein said control processor module collects said 3D coordinates data from said sensor module in claim 4, stores said data to a mass storage device through said storage device connector, and interacts with a user.
 8. The system of claim 2, wherein said battery provides power to said main unit.
 9. A method for measuring and storing motion data at a putter head during a golf game using said system in claim 1, comprising the steps of: initializing said main unit; generating sensor data in response to motion of a putter head where said system in claim 1 is attached on;
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said control processor module collects sensor data from said sensor module in said main unit in claim 2, and storing the sensor data to a mass storage device through said storage device connector.
 11. A method for analyzing motion data, comprising the steps of: transferring said motion data from a mass storage device to a plurality of personal computation devices; reconstructing swing trajectory from said motion data on said personal computation device; comparing said swing trajectory to a predefined swing motion data; generating a difference between said swing trajectory reconstructed from said motion data and a predefined swing data; and displaying said swing trajectory and said difference between said swing trajectory reconstructed from said motion data and a predefined swing data on a screen of the computing device used for said analysis.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising of the steps of: transferring said motion data from a mass storage device to a plurality of personal computation devices; uploading said motion data from a plurality of personal computation devices to a server-side computing device maintained by data analysis professionals through a plurality web-based interface means; reconstructing swing trajectory from said motion data on said server-side computation device; comparing said swing trajectory to a predefined swing motion data; generating a difference between said swing trajectory reconstructed from said motion data and a predefined swing data; transferring said reconstructed swing trajectory and said difference back to said personal computing device used to upload said motion data; and displaying said swing trajectory and said difference between said swing trajectory reconstructed from said motion data and a predefined swing data on a screen of the computing device used to upload said motion data. 